Five games and counting.

On Saturday, NIU ran Central Michigan into submission in a 33-7 victory; the Huskies fifth in as many games.

Highlighted by three rushing touchdowns from NIU (6-2 overall, 4-0 MAC) senior Chad Spann, the Huskies rode a wave of 24 unanswered second half points to a win.

Compiling 101 yards on 23 carries, Spann stood out on an offense that compiled 282 net rushing yards.

Getting his first action in three games, NIU running back Cameron Bell chipped in 82 yards on 12 carries; setting up two of Spann’s scores.

“A lot of teams have egos in the backfield,” Kill said. “But with us, it’s so far, so good. We have a couple guys that are still learning, but we have some good teachers in Chad Spann and Ricky Crider.”

While the second half featured scoring at-will by the Huskies, the game started off with a much slower tempo.

In the first quarter, both teams could only muster three points combined; a Michael Cklamovski 25-yard field goal that gave NIU a 3-0 edge.

Early in the second, the Chippewas put their lone points on the board when quarterback Ryan Radcliff hooked up with wide receiver Kito Poblah for an 11-yard touchdown that gave CMU (2-6, 1-4 MAC) its only lead of the game.

Radcliff’s day went downhill quickly after finding Poblah for the touchdown.

While attempting to drive down the field after an NIU field goal, the sophomore quarterback threw an interception to the Huskies Tyrone Clark.

Then, with the score 9-7 in favor of the Huskies, Radcliff once again found Clarke while attempting to find a receiver with under a minute left in the first half. The sophomore linebacker tipped and then intercepted the pass, giving him his second pick on the day and third of the 2010 campaign.

“We got a tip ball drill,” Clarke said. “Tipped balls are underrated. So, we always try to get our hands up and go for the ball. The ball is the main thing out there so we’re going to go get it.”

After throwing his third interception of the day in the third quarter, CMU head coach Dan Enos made the decision to pull Radcliff. According to the first year head coach, the decision to lift his starting quarterback came without much doubt.

“We made the decision because of very, very poor play,” Enos said. “We wanted to shake him [Radcliff] up a little bit and see what Brandon [Fricke] could do.”

The benching of Radcliff proved to be the only noteworthy occurrence for CMU in the second half, as the Huskies asserted their will on the Chippewas throughout the latter frames.

At one point, NIU scored touchdowns on three consecutive drives. All were scored by Spann and came from distances of 13, 12 and 2 yards, respectively.

NIU is now bowl eligible, as well as 4-0 in the MAC heading into next week’s contest with Western Michigan.